HONOLULU — A retired Honolulu police officer and a Big Island firefighter were sentenced Wednesday in connection with a corruption case involving a former Honolulu prosecutor and her retired police chief husband.
Retired Honolulu police officer Niall Silva was sentenced to nine months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy charges in 2016, Hawaii News Now reported.
He will be sent to prison in June and will serve a year of supervised release following his term.
Silva acknowledged his wrongdoing in court. “I’m truly sorry,” he said, while addressing Chief Judge Michael Seabright.
Former deputy prosecutor Katherine Kealoha and her now estranged husband, former Police Chief Louis Kealoha, were both convicted of conspiracy, obstruction and bank fraud amid a federal investigation.
In 2014, the Kealohas falsely accused a relative, Gerard Puana, of stealing their mailbox because of a family feud.
Silva earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.
He testified for the prosecution that he conspired with a lieutenant and another officer to lie about surveillance footage taken from the Kealoha home of a man seen hoisting the mailbox into a car. Federal prosecutors said he was instrumental in the case against the Kealohas.
Separately, Big Island firefighter Jesse Ebersole, who in 2018 pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct after lying to a grand jury about an affair he had with Katherine Kealoha, was sentenced to two years of probation and 500 hours of community service.
Court documents showed Kealoha paid for hotels and airline tickets with money illegally obtained to fly the Hawaii County firefighter from Hilo to Honolulu.
Ebersole apologized in court, saying what he had done was “the result of horrible decisions … including deceiving the grand jury.”
Louis Kealoha was sentenced to seven years and Katherine Kealoha was sentenced to 13.
